Determination of piroxicam from rat articular tissue and plasma based on LC-MS/MS

Reduction of systemic exposure and side effects by intra-articular injection of anti-inflammatory agents for osteoarthritis: what is the safer strategy?

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disease associated with pain, inflammation, and cartilage degradation. However, no current treatment can effectively halt the progression of the disease. Therefore, the use of NSAIDs and intra-articular corticosteroids is usually recommended as the primary treatment for OA-associated pain and inflammation. However, there is accumulating evidence that the long-term use of oral NSAIDs and intra-articular corticosteroids can lead to a myriad of negative side effects. Although numerous efforts have been made to develop intra-articular formulations for NSAIDs, the systemic exposure of intra-articular injection of NSAIDs and its potential side effects have not been explicitly investigated. To ascertain the evident and potential side effects of intra-articular injection of anti-inflammatory agents, we have summarised in this review the systemic exposure, local side effects, and systemic side effects of intra-articular injections of anti-inflammatory agents, including NSAIDs and corticosteroids. For developing a safer treatment to fulfil the unmet long-term use needs of patients, a new therapy, which combines the locally active drug and a sustained-release formulation, has been proposed in this review.

Development of salting-out extraction methodology for the determination of piroxicam from polymeric based nanocarriers and biological samples

The aim of the present study is to develop the polymeric nanoparticulate drug delivery systems of piroxicam and to evaluate the in-vitro characteristics such as entrapment efficiency, surface morphology, in-vitro drug release performance, etc. For this reason, a novel HPLC methodology was developed for the determination of piroxicam from its bulk form, pharmaceutical preparation, and nanoparticulate delivery systems. Furthermore, the developed formulation was applied to the rats and the biological samples (plasma, liver, heart, spleen, kidney, and lung homogenates) were analyzed by the developed HPLC method following a salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction strategy for the first time in the literature. A Kinetex C18 analytical column (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 µm) was used as a stationary phase with a 0.8 mL/min flow rate of acetonitrile: phosphate buffer (40:60, v/v), the column oven was adjusted to 40 °C and detection wavelength is set to 360 nm. Developed method were validated as per selectivity, linearity, LOD, LOQ, precision, and accuracy specified in the International Council for Harmonisation guidelines. As a result of the present study, it has been shown that the analysis of piroxicam from the bulk form, pharmaceutical preparation, developed polymeric-based drug delivery system, and biological samples can be successfully performed and no interferences were observed in any matrix. The developed method was also successfully utilized to study the tissue distribution of piroxicam in rats.

Piroxicam

A comprehensive profile of piroxicam including the nomenclatures, formulae, elemental composition, appearance, uses and applications. The methods which were utilized for the preparation of the drug substance and their respective schemes are outlined. The physical characteristics of the drug including the ionization constant, solubility, x-ray powder diffraction pattern, differential scanning calorimetry, thermal behavior and spectroscopic studies are described. The methods which were used for the analysis of the drug substance in bulk drug and/or in pharmaceutical formulations including the compendial, spectrophotometric, electrochemical and the chromatographic methods are reported. The stability, toxicity, pharmacokinetics, bioavailability, drug evaluation, comparison, in addition to compiled reviews on the drug substance are involved. Finally, more than four hundred and fifty references are listed at the end of this profile.

A rapid analysis of piroxicam in beagle plasma applying evaporation-free liquid-liquid extraction by supercritical fluid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Bioequivalence study is highly prized to piroxicam (PIRO), since its generic products have been widely used worldwide. The present work was undertaken to explore the pharmacokinetic behaviors and bioequivalence of two branded PIRO tablets in beagle dogs using the supercritical fluid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (SFC-MS/MS) method. Here, a fast evaporation-free liquid-liquid extraction (EF-LLE) method using ethyl acetate was developed for extracting PIRO from beagle dog plasma. To improve the response as well as peaks elution and symmetry of analytes, several key factors were investigated including post-column compensation, stationary phase, mobile phase, column temperature, back pressure and flow rate, and finally the analytes were eluted on an ACQUITY UPC2™ BEH 2-EP column (100 × 3 mm, 1.7 μm) within only 2.5 min in optimal conditions. The performance of the established method was evaluated, good linearity was found over the concentration range of 5-5000 ng/mL (R2 ≥ 0.994) with a lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of 5 ng/mL. Accuracy of all quality control (QC) samples were between 96.6% and 99.6% with a satisfactory intra and inter-day precision (RSD values < 6.6%). The proposed rapid, sensitive, user-friendly and high throughput method will be an alternative way for PIRO analysis in biological samples.

Increased localized delivery of piroxicam by cationic nanoparticles after intra-articular injection

Piroxicam (PRX), a potent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, is prescribed to relieve postoperative and/or chronic joint pain. However, its oral administration often results in serious gastrointestinal adverse effects including duodenal ulceration. Thus, a novel cationic nanoparticle (NP) was explored to minimize the systemic exposure and increase the retention time of PRX in the joint after intra-articular (IA) injection, by forming micrometer-sized electrostatic clusters with endogenous hyaluronic acid (HA) in the synovial cavity. PRX-loaded NPs consisting of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), Eudragit RL, and polyvinyl alcohol were constructed with the following characteristics: particle size of 220 nm, zeta potential of 11.5 mV in phosphate-buffered saline, and loading amount of 4.0% (w/w) of PRX. In optical and hyperspectral observations, the cationic NPs formed more than 50 μm-sized aggregates with HA, which was larger than the intercellular gaps between synoviocytes. In an in vivo pharmacokinetic study in rats, area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC_{0-24 h}) and maximum plasma concentration (C_max) of PRX after IA injection of the cationic NPs were <70% (P<0.05) and 60% (P<0.05), respectively, compared to those obtained from drug solution. Moreover, the drug concentration in joint tissue 24 h after dosing with the cationic NPs was 3.2-fold (P<0.05) and 1.8-fold (P<0.05) higher than that from drug solution and neutrally charged NPs, respectively. Therefore, we recommend the IA cationic NP therapy as an effective alternative to traditional oral therapy with PRX, as it increases drug retention selectively in the joint.